The eyes of Clippers players during the debacle that was their former owner Donald Sterling’s racist comments told a story — one of despair — as they tried to deal with a tough postseason that ended in mid-May with a heartbreaking loss to Oklahoma City in the Western Conference semifinals.

Their eyes told an entirely different story when they addressed several thousand fans at Monday’s fan festival at Staples Center that included an emotional rah-rah speech from new owner Steve Ballmer.

Once filled with pain, those eyes are now filled with joy.

Point guard Chris Paul was perhaps the most dejected player at the end of the postseason. He was partly responsible for the team losing Game 5 at Oklahoma City because of uncharacteristic shoddy play down the stretch. Couple that with the hurtful Sterling saga, and he just was not a happy man in May.

What a difference three months and a new owner makes.

“Thank you, guys,” Paul said to the fans seated on the south end of the arena. “Everything we went through wasn’t easy, obviously, through the playoffs. We didn’t go through it alone. I think you guys being with us every step of the way meant a lot to us. ... This truly is a new day.”

The first 2,500 fans in attendance received a commemorative T-shirt with the words “It’s a new day” on the back just below the neck.

Blake Griffin echoed Paul’s sentiment, but with his own delivery.

“We want to thank you for your support throughout the season,” said Griffin, who received the loudest applause among the eight players introduced. “Sometimes you’ve gotta go through a little adversity to become better ... to become stronger. And that’s what just happened. We want to thank Ballmer, we want to thank all of you for sticking with us.”

When it was time for the wild and crazy Ballmer to make his way to the dais, everyone kind of knew what was coming. Photographers lined up to get the perfect shot of Ballmer, who sure enough began slapping hands with fans with about as much gusto as can be imagined.

“When he came through high-fiving people, I literally had goose bumps,” Griffin said.

The crowd was going wild as Ballmer dazzled them with his incredible energy.

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“I couldn’t be more honored and excited and fired up to be here,” Ballmer said.

Coach Doc Rivers and Ballmer addressed the media afterward. It was easy to tell that a huge burden had been lifted off Rivers. It wasn’t that long ago he said he would have a difficult time staying as coach and team president if Sterling were still the owner this season.

“But I didn’t really think that was going to happen,” Rivers said. A judge recently ruled Shelly Sterling, Donald Sterling’s estranged wife, had the right to sell the team to Ballmer.

Still, Rivers was obviously relieved. Yet he didn’t want to receive any kudos for what most thought was tremendous leadership during the Sterling ordeal.

“The credit is not due, honestly, and I’m not trying to be this humble guy,” Rivers said. “There are so many other people that did so much more than me, honestly.

“I’m just the voice of a lot of people. But I was really just the voice of watching other people’s actions, so for me, that part was very easy in the fact that I had great leadership around me, just dealing with the employees and our players.”

Rivers suggested his players should get more credit for the way they handled the situation.

“What I’m happy about now is that’s removed and we can just go to doing our jobs,” Rivers said.

That job will now include an owner who has about as much fire in his belly as one man can have. After demonstrating that to the fans, Ballmer was asked where he gets his passion for basketball. The answer was about more than basketball, but it certainly seemed like it could translate to the hardwood.

“I think basketball is the most exciting sport on the planet. I love basketball,” said Ballmer, the former CEO at Microsoft. “My passion actually in a sense is for things I get involved with and things therefore I can really love.

“I can go watch a basketball game completely dispassionately, but I can’t watch one of my sons do anything completely dispassionately. I won’t be able to watch the Clippers play dispassionately because now I care. I’m involved. I kind of love it. And I think it’s just really an exciting time.”

The news conference would not have been complete without Ballmer being asked what assurances fans can have that he won’t move the team to Seattle, where he has lived the past 34 years.

He said he told a group of reporters in Seattle just two weeks ago at a golf event that the Clippers play in L.A. and won’t play in Seattle.

“I think Seattle is a town that deserves an NBA team,” he said, recalling what he told those reporters. “And yet, I want to move on and get going. This is a phenomenal opportunity, I love L.A. also, and that’s where the Clippers play. They are the L.A. Clippers. ... The L.A. is not changing, not under my watch.”

And Rivers can’t wait to see what he and his players can do under Ballmer’s watch.

“There are people who are excited about being the owner of a team, there are people who are excited about the business opportunity of the team,” Rivers said. “My sense is, he’s excited about making something a winner, making the team a winner. From a coaching standpoint, that’s pretty nice.”